My Pseudo Partner
by taleanaomi
Summary: A helping hand quickly turns into something more as Morgan quickly realises that a fellow agent is in over her head. A little backstory on how Derek Morgan came to teach martial arts in the FBI. CaseFic.
1. Chapter 1

Criminal Minds: My Pseudo Partner

written by taleanaomi

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own; just enjoy and have fun with it.

o0o

It had been one of the those cases that made you want to lie on the couch for a week; with headphones and an eye-mask. Upon returning to the office, Derek Morgan had debriefed with the team and then gathered this things and headed for home. Halfway to the parking garage, he changed his mind and let his feet roam over the campus.

Several minutes later, he found himself at the physical training centre. The gym as it was called was full. There was a late class in session, extra circular if he was reading the sign right, on self defence. On impulse, he yanked open the door and stepped inside.

After watching the class for a few minutes, he realized that there was two different people inside that gym. Most of them were almost graduates and then rest were semi-experienced full agents. They were all standing in a circle around the mat.

He watched as two of the students took on the role of the agent and the UnSub or perp. The former failed miserably.

"Nice try." The blonde-haired instructor commented. "You just got your weapon taken away and the UnSub just blew your brains out. Back in the circle, gents."

The young men sheepishly got to their feet and the 'UnSub' handed the rubber weapon back to the instructor.

The instructor's green eyed gaze swept the group looking for the next person to take on the challenge. Her eyes fell on Morgan for a quick second and then moved on.

"Alright." She announced to the group. "You've all been standing for way too long. Five laps around the gym. Let's go!" She clapped her hands and everyone took off to complete their ten laps. The students were joking with one another and raced. But the more experienced agents took things at a more even pace.

Morgan grinned. He remembered those days. He might have been tempted to join if things hadn't taken so long with this case. He turned to leave when the instructor called him back. "Agent!"

Morgan turned back as the woman jogged over to him, ponytail swinging. "Do you have a moment?" She asked stopping in front of him. "I could use some help demonstrating the proper technique."

Morgan hesitated. It had been a long day and he had really been ready to go home and decompress.

"I wouldn't normally ask, but I'm on my own tonight and could really use a hand." She explained. She held out her hand. "Devon. I've seen you around. I know you know your stuff."

He took her hand. "Derek. Yeah, sure. I'll give you a hand."

Tension drained out of her body and she smiled. "Cool. You can drop your stuff off over there." She waved towards the bench with towels and gym bags. "We're almost finished, but I really want them to get this hold down before they leave. Especially the students."

"Which one are we talking about?" Morgan asked, letting his bag slide off his shoulder and onto the bench. Devon explained what she'd been working on as Morgan shucked shoes, socks, watch, jacket, and gun. He already wore a t-shirt so that wasn't a problem.

What Devon was describing was fairly simple; what happens when an UnSub gets your gun and holds you in a choke hold? With all their training, it was fairly unlikely that something like this would happen, but Morgan knew that things weren't always so straight forward in the field.

"Let's do a quick practice around." He suggested. "I want to be sure I know how you want to teach this."

By now, most of the agents had finished their laps and had come back to the mat. They had a few watchers, but it didn't seem to bother Devon. She held out her hand in front of her like she was holding a gun. She frowned. "You sure about this?" She asked.

She must have seen something in his eyes to make her ask that question. Morgan quickly buried anything that might have been showing. "Of course." He said. The case wouldn't leave him alone, so he would have to leave it alone.

He grabbed her hand and they slowly did a mock practice run. He relieved her of her 'weapon,' shoved her around and placed his arm around her neck. She went for the classic get out of the hold move and Morgan reacted instinctively, tightening his arm and keeping her in place. Quick as a flash, Devon slipped through his countermove which lead them to a stale mate before they realized they would need to start over again.

"Sorry." They both apologized to one another. Devon let go of him and he stood up. By now, the entire group was watching.

"Let's do that again." Devon said quietly. This time, she narrated through the whole thing. They made it through without any incident. Devon called over the remaining students and they all gathered in a circle around the mat to watch.

Devon introduced the move again. And let them know that they would practice it themselves. They went again without incident. It took three tries in order for all the students to get what they were doing. Morgan let himself be 'arrested' several times during the students practice runs. Then they all gathered around to discuss what had happened.

"When taking hostages, they're going to look for someone smaller, someone less threatening then them." Morgan told them. "Which is why I played the bad guy in this scenario."

"It's not about strength." Devon said. "It's about leverage." She took the rubber gun and shoved it against Morgan's ribs. "Go with me on this one." She told him before grabbing his arm and gently twisted it behind his back. "Who's got the upper hand here?"

"You do." The guy answered. "Your using a gun, he's going to get shot if he moves. But that's cheating!"

Devon dropped the gun and wrapped her arm around Morgan's neck in a gentle chokehold. Morgan had to almost lean backwards to accommodate her smaller frame. "And now?" She asked. No one answered her.

"I do." She said finally into the silence. "I have my opponent off balance. Let's see if he can get out of it."

Morgan took that as his cue. Strength wise, he was stronger then she was, but as off balance as he was his struggle against her didn't last long when she could yank him even more off balance and kick his knees so he fell to the mat.

"Its not about strength." Devon told the students. "It's about training. You've got to trust in your training. You've got the tool to control the situation. You're UnSub doesn't."

Morgan took the opportunity to use a few of his own moves from his training and dumped Devon on the mat unceremoniously. "But be prepared for surprises." Morgan said, picking up where she left off. "Anything can happen. Don't let your guard down."

A few snickers came from the crowd. Devon had just done that. She managed to smile, but stayed on the floor. "Class dismissed!" She told them with a wave of her hand.

A stampede went towards the benches and locker room. Morgan offered her a hand and helped her up. "Sorry about that. I thought it was a perfect opening to talk about surprise moves."

Devon took his hand and got to her feet. "No. It was great. Thanks for helping out, even after that little hiccup earlier."

Morgan knew she was referring to how he'd reacted earlier. "Yeah, about that.."

"It's okay." Devon said with a shrug. "It happens." There was a moment of silence. Devon motioned towards the mat. "I've gotta clean up, so..."

"I'll give you a hand." Morgan offered.

Devon look at the clock. "It's after nine; don't you have some place to be?"

Morgan shook his head. "Not tonight."

They gathered the rubber weapons in silence and then walked them over to the buns in the corner of the room.

"So you usually teach this stuff without a partner?" Morgan asked.

She laughed. "Teach, heck no! I'm usually out in the field, but I fill in as needed. Surveillance tends to get a little tedious so I started a few supplicant classes for the more experienced agents. The ones whose skills tend to get a little rusty. I don't usually have students so it works well with just me." She explained. "You should volunteer to lead a class or two." She encouraged, turning to conversation back around.

Morgan shook his head, grinning at the image of him instructing.

"No, seriously!" She exclaimed. "You're patient, you know what you're talking about, and you've got decades of experience."

"Decades?" Morgan asked. He grinned. "Just how old do you think I am?"

"Older then I am." She replied with a wink and a nudge. They both laughed and quickly finished storing the equipment. A quick wipe down of the mat and they were done. Morgan returned his clothing to it's proper place and expected to leave alone, but Devon followed him to the door and turned out the lights.

"Going my way?" She asked with a smile. It turned out they both were headed for the same parking garage. As fate would have it, Morgan had needed to park in a different one that day due to the heavy amount of traffic around the BAU building.

Devon locked the gym door behind them and returned the keys to her gym bag. Her badge and gun were also in her bag. "Thanks again for helping." She said as they reached the parking garage. "See you around sometime?"

Morgan nodded. "Sure. And I'll think about that offer to lead a class."

"You better!" She laughed. "After today, my students realize that I don't know everything. They're going to need another teacher. Good night."

"Night." Morgan replied, watching her walk towards her car which was several parking spaces away. She had made it easy for him to ask her out, but he didn't date inside the FBI. Why tempt fate by starting a relationship where the two parties involved never saw one another except in passing?

He turned to his truck, pulling his keys from his pocket. He unlocked the door and threw his bag onto the passenger seat. From behind him, a car horn sounded. The sound struck him as odd and he turned back to looked Devon's car.

He saw two figures struggling in the dark car. That wasn't normal; she was being attacked. Morgan drew his weapon and moved towards the car. Two people fell out of the car, one was Devon – he could tell by the blonde hair and the other was male, ski mask in place.

She broke the UnSub's hold on her neck in much the same manner she'd used during their training exercise earlier and scrambled away, reaching for the gun that had skittered across the cement floor. But the man in black was quicker and shot her in the back.

She cried out, it echoed in the parking garage. But her fingers still stretched for her weapon that was a few millimetres out of her reach. Feet came into view and she looked up as Morgan raised his weapon and took the shot, and then another one.

The man in black fell, dead. Morgan knelt down and accessed the wound. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled the emergency number. "Yes, I have an agent down. Parking garage, I need medical ASAP."

"Hang on, hang on." He told Devon as she grunted and gasped with the pressure he was putting on the wound. "Don't bleed out on me, you hear me?"

She nodded, grabbing ahold of his sleeve with fingers that turned white. "Derek..." Her eyes widened and he realized she was looking past him. He looked up just in time to see a fist flying at his face. He fell over with the force of the punch.

The guy that he'd shot twice in the chest was up and he was ready to kill. Through a fuzzy haze, he saw the man advance on him, gun in hand. Morgan reached for his weapon and then realized he left it lying by Devon. He shook his head, trying to clear the stars from his eyes. The gun came up, and then two shots were fired.

Blood sprayed at him and Morgan instinctively closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the man in front of him collapsed to the cement floor, two shots to the back of the head.

He saw Devon lower the gun to the floor, panting with the effort. By now he could hear sirens. He got to his feet and stumbled over to her. There was a pool of blood collecting under her body. The sirens got closer as Morgan once again closed the hole in her back with his hand.

"Get him?" Devon asked.

"Yeah, you did. You did good, girl." Morgan told her.

She sighed, nodded. He grabbed the gun out of her hand as she fell unconscious; just as the EMT's rolled into the garage. The two medics jumped from the back of the ambulance. One of them hurried over to Morgan as the other one rolled the stretcher out.

"What happened to her?" The medic asked bending down beside Morgan.

"Gunshot to the back." Morgan told him. He motioned with his head. "UnSub is over there. Dead."

"Alright." The medic bent over to check on Devon. He quickly grabbed Morgan's hand. "Keep pressure on that wound, don't move your hand. We're going to have to load her quick."

The EMT's quickly worked to get Devon onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. On a second glance, the medic thought it was safe for Morgan to take his hand away and the medic took over.

"Where are you taking her?" Morgan managed to ask before the doors close.

"Closest hospital." The medic yelled back before they took off. By the time the ambulance left the parking garage, Bureau Security had arrived on scene. It took another hour to get his statement and close off the crime scene.

Morgan broke away and pulled out his phone. He dialled and waited until it picked up. "Hotch. There's been an incident."


	2. Chapter 2

o0o

Chapter 2

Morgan awoke with a start as the knock on his office door echoed in his subconscious, sounding like subtle gunshots. It was Rossi.

"Did you spend all night in that chair?" Rossi asked from the doorway where he was standing. He leaned against the frame and took a sip of the coffee in his hand.

Morgan rubbed at his neck which was hurting suspiciously like he had spent all night in the chair. "No; just the last few hours." He replied. He squinted at his watch. "What time is it?"

"Just after eight am." Rossi informed him. "The rest of the team is already gathered. Hotch is ready to brief us. That's quite a shiner you got there."

"Thanks." Morgan replied a little sarcastically. "You should see the other guy."

"I did." Rossi replied. "He only looks slightly better then you do at this point. Which is a feat considering he's dead."

Morgan couldn't help but chuckle. He pushed himself to his feet and followed Rossi into the briefing room. Reid set a cup of coffee in front of him on the way to his usual seat at the corner of the table.

Morgan picked it up. "Thanks, kid." He took a sip. It was the good stuff too.

"You look like you're going to need more then just a cup of coffee." Garcia said coming in behind JJ. She gave Morgan a hug from behind and then moved around to his side to get a better look at his face. "Oh, ouch." She said, wincing with sympathy. She gently touched his face. "Does it hurt? Did the medics check you out last night?"

"I'm fine, baby girl." Morgan said, gently removing her hand from his face. "Have we heard if Devon's out of surgery yet?"

"Yes." JJ replied, taking her seat. "The hospital called this morning. The surgery went well, but they're still waiting to see if the bullet did any damage to her spinal cord. They'll know more after she wakes up. Her sister is with her now."

"Good." Morgan murmured as Hotch entered the room.

"Good morning, everyone." Their team leader greeted them. "I'm sure by now most of you are up to date on the latest case?" The nods around the room encouraged him to keep going.

"Great. We'll recap in just a moment, but you all should know that we've officially been given this case by the Department of Justice. No one has enough manpower to take this on at the moment and the Director thought our unique skill set would came in handy to help catch this UnSub. This isn't just one FBI agent shot in the line of duty, this happened in our house. Garcia, what do we know so far?"

"Okay. I pulled up all the security feeds from last night and yesterday and managed to track Agent Monk's movements over the course of her day." Garcia typed something on the portable keyboard in front of her and the security feeds from the FBI popped up on the large screen in the centre of the room.

"Here she is entering the gate at 8:01am, leaving the base to go spy on someone at 10:13, returning at 1:35, and then going into the gym at 7:00. And then here she is with Morgan leaving the gym at 9:02 and then I have the parking garage feeds."

They all watched the last screen in silence as Morgan and Devon were attacked.

"EMS arrived at 9:22; twenty minutes after they entered the garage." Garcia finished and paused the feeds.

"Was there any reason to think that this would've happened?" Rossi asked. "Was she working on anything sensitive or had someone threatened her during work hours?"

Everyone at the table looked towards Morgan.

"Why are you all looking at me?" He asked with a slight frown.

"You don't know her." Hotch said, accurately discerning the situation.

"No. I just met her last night." Morgan replied. "What kind of surveillance was she in?" He asked.

"Uh, long term surveillance; you know that kind where you spend all day trapped in a smelly van with a partner who hopefully smells better then you." Garcia answered. "She wasn't actively working a case according to her supervisor. She just went out yesterday to backup some agents in the field. She was gone for... four hours? After that she was in her office until 7:00."

"Any phone calls in or out?" JJ asked.

"Just work related ones that I can tell." Garcia replied. "She ordered Chinese food for dinner, but it was from the one that everyone else does in this building so that's not suspicious. Though their chicken might be a tad bit suspicious."

Both JJ and Reid both made a face at her comment; it was true.

"He was waiting for her in her car." Rossi said thoughtfully. "If Morgan hadn't have been there, she'd be dead."

"For all we know the UnSub could've been counting on that." Reid said. "If she kept to her normal schedule, he'd have no reason to suspect that Morgan or anyone for that matter would've been there."

"She teaches a self defence class at the gym, after hours." Morgan replied. "That's got to be how he knew where to find her."

"Yeah, I got it right there." Garcia replied. "Oh my, you were right, Derek. It's posted on the secure FBI server. Anyone who's got a login and password would've been able to see it, including some civilians. They post it a whole month in advance too. Look."

She turned her computer around so they could see it. The days in question were marked red.

"This is starting to look like someone's feeding an outsider information." Hotch agreed. "Something I've been wondering about is how did they get into the parking garage? It's a secured area. There are at least two checkpoints between the street and that particular parking garage. You can't just walk in off the street."

"They must have someone inside the building." Rossi agreed. "Someone would've had to let the UnSub onto the grounds. We've got a mole." He cheerfully announced.

o0o

With the rest of the team combing through agent records, Morgan volunteered to go to the hospital and check on Devon. Hotch had also advised him to talk to her sister, which wasn't a task he was looking forward too. Interviewing family members was one of the hardest parts of this job. He didn't have to worry though.

Morgan showed his credentials to the agent that was posted outside Devon's hospital room and then stepped inside as the man pulled open the sliding door.

Instantly, he was tackled by a dark haired woman.

"This is her sister, Deborah." The agent on security detail said with a small grin before going back to his post in front of the door; sliding it closed behind him.

"They tell me you're the one I have to thank." Deborah Monk said, letting go of Morgan and stepping back so he could see her face. Unlike her sister who was blonde and green-eyed, Deborah was dark haired, dark eyed, and dark skinned. Adoption could be on the cards.

"Uh.. yeah. Who told you that?" Morgan asked, leading her back to the chair.

"The agent I talked to when I got here. I think he said he was from Internal Investigations." Deborah replied as she retook her chair at the foot of Devon's hospital bed. Morgan seated himself in the other chair across from her. "I'm just glad she had a partner looking out for her."

"I think whoever you talked to might have been mistaken." Morgan said. "Your sister and I aren't partners. We don't even work in the same department. I just met her last night."

"But... I thought... you weren't with her when it happened?" Deborah asked. She was confused and rightly so. The FBI was a vast organization and it was pretty easy to get lost in it.

"It's okay." Morgan soothed. "I'll tell you what happened, alright? But first I want to know how your sister is doing. What did the doctor say?"

Deborah nodded. "Okay. Uh... the doctors said that the bullet was resting near her spine and may have done some damage, but they're not sure how much." She took a deep breath. "She might never walk again. But they don't know that for sure. She could be okay. She could be okay." She pressed her lips together to keep from sobbing.

"Do you have anyone to be with you?" Morgan asked. "Where's your parents?"

"No.. uh.. Mom and Dad died a few years ago. Devon's the youngest; we've got five older brothers." Deborah smiled through her tears. "They'll.. uh.. all in less dangerous lines of work. They couldn't stand it that she was an agent."

"I have two sisters." Morgan told her. "It wouldn't be my first choice for a career for either of them."

"Oh, but it made her so happy." Deborah exclaimed turning back to the bed. She took Devon's hand. "We talk on the phone every week. She didn't tell me much, I knew she couldn't, but what she did, I could tell she loves it."

"Did she ever mention to you anything about a tough case? Someone who would send her threatening letters, phone calls, anything?"

Deborah shook her head. "I don't think so. I know that the last case she worked, the Survelly case, was tough. You would know more then I would, but I know they had to backup the agents that went inside the house. I know that's not normal."

"No, it's not." Morgan said. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?"

Deborah nodded.

Morgan stepped out into the hall and put his cell phone up to his ear. "Garcia, we're going to need to find everything we can on the Survelly case that Agent Monk worked on. Her sister may have just given us the key to find this son of a bitch."

" _Okay. Just give me a minute..."_

Morgan could hear typing happening in the background and then a slight gasp. _"Oh my. Apparently, the main suspect in the Survelly case has vanished."_

"What do you mean "vanished," Garcia?" Morgan asked.

" _I mean that's the whole reason why this case exists."_ Garcia replied. _"The leader of the Survelly gang, which by the way is a front for the Irish mob, Patrick Survelly has been missing for the last two years. He's got several warrants out and he's in our top thirty most wanted. One bad dude; you won't believe some of the things I'm reading here.. There's a case agent we can talk too if we need more information."_

"Thanks, baby girl. Tell Hotch that I'm coming back to the BAU. And I want to talk to the case agent."

"I'm way ahead of you, sugar. His office is getting an summons as we speak. Oh, and by the way; Reid and Rossi are talking to Agent Monk's partner. Thought you would want to know that."

"Thanks, Garcia. Tell them to let me know if they find anything."


End file.
